Just 15 days into his administration, President Donald Trump pitched a bold vision for the future of the Middle East.
During a joint appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump expressed his desire to transform the Palestinian territory of Gaza, which has been heavily impacted by Israeli actions, into a luxurious destination dubbed the ‘Riviera of the Middle East.’
Trump shared his vision by stating, ‘I don’t want to be a wise guy, but the Riviera of the Middle East is going to be something that could be so … magnificent.’ This ambitious idea was put forward during the mentioned event.
Fast forward to the present, and President Trump is gearing up for a rapid visit to the Middle East within his second term. The planned trip involves stops in Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, spanning three and a half days and commencing from Washington on Monday.
Several regional experts warned the Daily Mail that if Trump wants the trip to be a success – he should never speak of the ‘Riviera’ plan again.
‘Well, I think like most people, I thought this was a crazy idea,’ said American University Prof. Gregory Aftandilian, who’s a fellow at the Arab Center.
‘I think the Saudis are going to tell Trump, “Listen, this is an interesting idea, but it’s never gonna fly, yeah? And please desist from talking about it,”‘ Aftandilian said. ‘I think that’s probably what the Saudi pitch is going to be.’
Alarm bells went off through the Arab world when Trump floated the proposal in early February, as he suggested the population of 2 million Palestinians would be removed from the Gaza strip so it could be redeveloped – and was cagey about whether the Palestinians could return.
President Donald Trump (right), alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) – his first foreign leader White House guest of his second term – pitched an idea to turn the wartorn Palestinian territory of Gaza into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’
‘Displacing them goes against Palestinian nationalism,’ Aftandilian explained. ‘So now that their homes are destroyed, what they want is a rebuilding of their home, so they can go back to live in their homeland. But Trump is saying, “Oh no, we’re going to put up all these luxury resorts in their place.”‘
‘The whole thing was just nutty from the get-go. I think even Netanyahu was a bit stunned,’ the professor added.
H. A. Hellyer, a senior fellow for Geopolitics and Security Studies at the left-learning Center for American Progress, reacted to the proposal by calling it ‘basically ethnic cleansing’ and a ‘contravention of international law.’
‘It wasn’t just the Arab world that rejected the idea, it was pretty much everybody outside of D.C. and Tel Aviv,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘So I don’t think that the president is really going to talk about this issue, particularly much on this trip, partly because the Saudis seem to have briefed in D.C. that they don’t want to bring this up.’
Trump’s plan – which he doubled down on by sharing an AI video on February 25 showing, among other things, he and Netanyahu sunning themselves on the Gazan shore – made the Arab nations spring into action.
They want to see Gaza turned into a permanent Palestinian state, something that Netanyahu’s conservative Israeli government is opposed to.
By March 4, Arab leaders at an emergency summit in Cairo, Egypt came up with a $53 billion reconstruction plan for Gaza as an alternative to Trump’s ‘Riviera.’
This, argued Jacob Olidort, the director of the Center for American Security at the MAGA-friendly American First Policy Institute, showed that Trump’s boldness was producing results.
President Donald Trump doubled down on that plan by sharing on February 25 an AI generated video of what a Trumpified Gaza would look like, including what appears to be a glitzy gold casino
‘The president’s announcement was a catalyst, driving regional partners to deliver on a plan for Gaza – a topic no one cared to address previously,’ Olidort argued in an op-ed for Town Hall last month.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Olidort pushed back on Trump’s critics saying that he found the ‘Riviera’ announcement ‘respectful toward the Gazan people.’
‘The tone and the point was, really, that they deserve better than this,’ he said.
Olidort also said he felt that Trump was ‘explicit’ in his intention to ‘temporarily move the population.’
‘And I think that’s in recognition of the fact that Hamas has exploited children’s bedrooms, hospitals, schools, that there is no way to remove Hamas’ military infrastructure without addressing how they exploited civilian infrastrucutre in that territory,’ Olidort explained.
One major thing missing from the Egyptian plan is what would happen to Hamas – the Gaza-ruling militant group responsible for the horrific October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, which started the current war.
Some Arab nations, like the Israelis, want to see it eliminated, while others have said it should be left up to the Palestinians.
Hamas’ attack on Israel was timed to disrupt Saudi Arabia from joining the Abraham Accords, which would have normalized the kingdom’s relations with Israel.
The AI video included a shot of President Donald Trump (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) sunbathing at ‘Trump Gaza.’ This visual would be particularly concerning to Arab partners who want Gaza to become a permanent Palestinian state
Another bizarre visual from the video – which also included bearded belly dancers – was this image of Palestinian children on the beach jumping up and down to catch American dollars
The Abraham Accords were originally signed at the end of Trump’s first administration and normalized relations between Israel and the UAE and Israel and Bahrain.
The Trump 1.0 administration and then the Biden administration and now the Trump 2.0 administration have been pushing the Saudis to also sign on.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, has indicated that the kingdom will not be agreeing to such a thing unless there’s a move toward Palestinian statehood.
And a move toward Palestinian statehood won’t happen if Israel’s current right-wing government led by Netanyahu stays in place.
‘MBS, Mohammed bin Salman is probably going to tell Trump, you know, politically, I just can’t do this,’ Aftandilian said.
Aftandilian predicted that one way the Middle East trip can be a success is that if there’s ‘no public spat over the Gaza issues.’
‘Obviously the Saudis don’t want to be put in a corner where Trump says, oh yes, they’re going to sign the Abraham Accords,’ Aftandilian said. ‘The best I can hope for from both countries is that there’s no public discussion of that.’
Olidort was more optimistic.
Smoke rises above Gaza City on Thursday. President Donald Trump likely won’t be able to persuade Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords as long as the war in Gaza continues. New polling shows Republicans want him to apply more pressure on Israel to stop the war
A Palestinian boy sits among the rubble in Gaza City earlier this month. At a meeting in Egypt, Arab countries came up with a plan to rebuild Gaza after the war – but the plan doesn’t mention Hamas
‘What stood out to me in how the Saudis presented that piece of their new demands was that they wanted a pathway toward statehood, and not necessarily the promise,’ Olidort explained. ‘That can be easily addressed by – starting by the elimination of Iranian influence in Gaza and then elsewhere in the region.’
But as one former Biden National Security Council official put it – Trump can’t make progress on the Abraham Accords if there’s an ongoing war.
Israeli-American Eden Alexander (pictured) is expected to be released by Hamas this week while President Donald Trump is in the region
‘The president talks a lot about, you know, building on the Abraham Accords and reaching a broader normalization deal, that would be a very good thing,’ the official said. ‘But as long as there is an active war in Gaza, that is going to be impossible to achieve.’
Directly ahead of the trip, there was some movement in a positive direction on that front.
On Sunday, Hamas said it would release Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, who has been held since the October 7, 2023 terror attack.
The release was thought to be a gesture ahead of Trump trip to the region – with the hope of getting aid into Gaza, though Israel has not agreed to a ceasefire while negotiations are taking place.
‘Recent reports indicating that Hamas and D.C. have come to a “confidence building measure” on the release of an American-Israeli hostage, in order to achieve a pause in fighting may point to an announcement by Trump on this trip vis-a-vis a ceasefire, but any announcement is likely to be relatively limited, given Israeli intransigence on a ceasefire, and clear disagreements between Tel Aviv and D.C.,’ Hellyer told the Daily Mail.
Israel has set Trump’s trip as a deadline for a ceasefire deal with Hamas, before planning a major ground offensive into Gaza.
A poll released last week showed a surprising result – that Trump’s own base would give him political cover should he decide to press Israel harder to stop the war.
Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military offensive, shelter in tents near the rubble of houses in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. President Donald Trump pitched the ‘Riviera’ plan, saying that Gaza has been left as demolition site
A John Zogby Strategies poll commissioned by the Arab American Institute, which was started by Zogby’s brother James, found that 49 percent of Republicans believed that Trump should apply greater pressure on Israel to end the occupation of Gaza.
A smaller portion of 29 percent of Republicans disagreed with that statement.
Republicans, historically, have been a very pro-Israel set – though the numbers have moved in the last four or five months.
‘If President Trump were to sanction Israel, if he were to say, if you don’t end the occupation, stop the bombing, we’re going to cut aid, he would have support from his own base,’ James Zogby said on a call with reporters Wednesday.
The survey, which was conducted last month, found that not only Republicans but a ‘significant number of evangelicals who form the base of the Republican Party’ agreed with this idea – especially younger ones.
‘Which I think is a fascinating thing to consider, is that he’d have more leeway than Joe Biden would, who would have faced a united opposition on the Republican side even though he would have strong support on the Democratic side,’ James Zogby continued.
‘But Trump has the ability to get away with it because his base, Republican voters, feel that we should actually connect aid to Israel with their behavior, he should actually put more presure on them, and that, I think, is something we’ve never seen before,’ he added.
A spokesperson for Trump’s National Security Council did not respond to a Daily Mail inquiry on whether the president would be pitching the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ concept on the trip.
